You can NOT rely on your team in this or DotA unless you're bringing people you know. In a public game you absolutely can not rely on them, if you think you can you're smoking crack. Yes, you might get a good team mate, or your team mate might suck shit. But you can't just assume they're good or know what they're doing. More often than not 1 or more will have no idea what the hell is happening. You rely on yourself and only yourself and if it happens that you get lucky then you'll be all that more powerful. If not you havent fucked yourself by relying on someone thats no good.
The people that play these games and rely on team mates are the same people we're seeing here crying about heroes. ZOMG Sniper/troll warlord/PA/etc are OP!!! Except none of them are if you had gotten an item to stop them you'd be fine. But you chose to get whatever items that are 1337sauce instead and now you get to eat shit. You can't assume someone else is going to get a sheep stick to disable them, you have to do it yourself. If you don't you have no one to blame but yourself.
You can and should assume your team mates will do certain things. No hero can do everything simultaneously. You can't defend all flags at the same time. You can't be a massive disabler, dpser, support, etc all at the same time either.
If I see a rasta or an intel hero on my team in DoTA, he better be getting a sheepstick unless he's got some funky/special build - especially if he's the only intel guy.
If I have an Oak on my team and I know he got the shield skill and the mana to use it, I may bait the enemy to attack me then run back to Oak to get a shield and ambush them. Similarly if I'm getting attacked and a rook teammate is nearby who has boulder roll. How about if there's a nearby friendly regulus who I know has snipe? Will I chase a nearly dead hero or rely on his snipe? You bet your ass I'll rely on the snipe. There's no need to put myself at risk just to get a kill when a team mate can do it and we'll share gold anyways.
This game's all about teamwork. What do you do if your team isn't doing the things they should be doing? You tell them what what they should have done differently. Most people are cool with getting advice. Occasionally you meet someone who seems to take it like a personal insult, but that's a different topic.
If you're relying on yourself and play totally independantly, you'll get crushed by a team that works together - even if they're each less skilled than you. There's too many games I've played with the team consisting of all these solo prima donnas. You can tell they know how to play their hero, but they play with the attitude of "If we win this game, it's all because of my effort". Seeing your posts make me realize why they may think that way.
He better be getting a sheep stick. But you apparently would be surprised how often they do not. IMO That's the first item every INT hero should get because it gives you everything you need all in one. The disable is paramount to winning games where one hero is getting out of control. Most of the heroes that people see as "OP" can be killed in those 3 seconds that sheep lasts.
You can't take every flag on your own, but you can get so out of hand on your own that the enemy cant stop you anymore. In an ideal world you could rely on your team for help, but if you play like they're not going to do shit to help you you've already got a leg up when it turns out that they.....will do shit to help you. If they turn out to be good you've got a leg up on the other team.
Cast in point, yesterday (or the day before, think it was yesterday) I was playing Reg, We had an oak I believe and a rook. First thing rook asks is "So are you guys good?" I said there's no way anyone can honestly answer that. I believe it to be one of those things where if you say you're good you're going to get your ass handed to you, if you have some modesty you'll be fine. Rook then proceeds to say "I know I'm good" so I'm like well fuck, he's going to be useless and proceeded to start playing as if I'm going to have to pick up his slack.
They have an erebus (ZOMG SO SCARY!) he seems to want to kill me a lot, follows me around but never really scares me at all, just annoying. So i picked up a cloak of flames. He batswarms in, mark of the betrayer, he bites, takes damage, i cloak of flames and start attacking. He's surrounded by mines on both sides a milimeter from where he is so he can't leave he's just got to sit their and eat shit. Which he does, over and over and over and over. Because erebus sure can't be countered, even by the hero hes meant to eat alive.
Anyways, mr "I'm really good" rook proceeds to go 2-4. While not awful, its not good either. It's bad. He blames all his deaths on being on the phone. Which I believe to be a load of crap, but if you're going to be on the phone dont join a game, just saying. I proceed to go 15-3 and we win. Now I'm not stroking my peen on the score. I played as if we had no rook because I knew from the second he said he was good he was in fact going to be terrible and there was going to need to be slack picked up.
You can't trust your team mates unless you're in vent with them. You just cant, you might like to in a fluffy puppy world but it's just not a thing you can rely on with any sense of normalicy. When you get a good team, its great, when you don't someone needs to try and make up for it.
